Depression and anxiety through the climacteric period: an epidemiological study (HUNT-II)

The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of anxious and depressive symptoms related to menstruational status in a large community sample.

In the HUNT-II study all adults in Nord-Trøndelag County of Norway were asked about demographic factors, lifestyle, physical symptoms and somatic diseases, a total of 94,197 persons. Anxious and depressive symptoms were recorded by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Of female persons invited aged 35-60 years (N = 19,677), 16,080 (82%) took part. The menstruation status were defined as pre-, peri- and postmenopausal periods, calculated as the time period from last menstruation to examination date.

There was a significantly higher score on depression and anxiety in the peri- and the postmenopausal period compared to the premenopausal period. Comparing the postmenopausal period with the perimenopausal period, the score for depressive symptoms was somewhat higher while the score for anxious symptoms was somewhat lower. These differences did not reach significance.

There was a general effect of age on the scores on HADS-D. For scores on HADS-A there was a peak in the score in the perimenopausal period, indicating a high degree of anxiety symptoms in this time period which is especially connected to fluctuations in the serum level of gonadal hormones.